Atlanta Hawks

You know who some of the worst judges of talent and team building skills are? No, stop it with the Bobcats jokes. It’s other players. They often see players for what they were not are, or have inflated (or undersized) understanding of a player based on what they have seen in person in a game…

Today begins PBT’s team-by-team season preview, going through all 30 squads. We are starting in the deep Atlantic Division that could well send four teams to the playoffs, and we will move West from there. First up, your Philadelphia 76ers. Last season: They were a slightly better than .500 team (35-31) that played great defense…

Two and a half weeks ago, Business Week released a study on the “smartest spenders in the NBA.” Kurt talked about the top and bottom ten here. It’s nothing shocking. The Lakers spend really well! The Wizards and Kings spend really badly! Turns out there’s a high correlation between “being a really good team” and…

Ivan Johnson will be back with the Atlanta Hawks next season, one of their key bigs off the bench, but he will be a free agent next summer. After being unable to find a better offer in a tight market, Johnson has signed the qualifying offer the Hawks extended, reports Chris Haynes at CSNNW.com. That…

Here is our regular look around the NBA — links to stories worth reading and notes to check out (stuff that did not get its own post here at PBT) — done in bullet point form. Because bloggers love bullet points. • The Brooklyn Nets signing of Josh Childress is official. While that is technically…

Tracy McGrady is auditioning for jobs. Like a lot of veterans he is finding the financial realities of the new CBA are keeping teams from guaranteeing contracts for veterans, so he is out there working it trying to find a team that will sign him, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Still searching for an…

Last season in Philly, the games started with Jrue Holiday as the point guard and decision maker. Then when Lou Williams came in off the bench gunning he shared those decision-making responsibilities. Now Williams is gone to Atlanta. So who is going to be the guy with the ball in his hands when Holiday is…

If you ask close observers who the smartest, best coach on the international circuit is you usually hear the name David Blatt. The average fan may not know him from the guy walking his dog down their street, but those fans know the powerhouse EuroLeague team he coaches (Maccabi Tel Aviv) and they know he…

The fadeaway long has been an NBA fact of life. While the stars hold press conferences to announce enough is enough, their fame to keep them in the spotlight (and possibly part of broadcast teams) long after their playing days — something we soon might get from Ben Wallace — for the majority of those…

Here is our regular look around the NBA — links to stories worth reading and notes to check out (stuff that did not get its own post here at PBT) — done in bullet point form. Because bloggers love bullet points like Packers fans like bratwurst. • We are in the “everyone looks good working…

For the past two regular seasons, the Chicago Bulls were the best team in the East. They were the top seed. But they played much of the season in their top gear — especially on defense — which overwhelmed opponents but left questions about whether they could step it up in the playoffs. We’ll never…

There was a time when Tracy McGrady was one of those players you stopped flipping channels to watch, he was that special, that entertaining. Injuries robbed us (and the Rockets) of that McGrady. He’s still a serviceable guard just trying to find a spot in the league. Any spot, apparently. There is this tweet from…

Yesterday we shared with you how Juwan Howard was making his rap album. It would appear that he is not alone in this endeavor. IAmAGM.com reports on a new album that dare we say brings back memories of “B-Ball’s Best Kept Secret.” The rap album is titled, “Full Court Press Vol. 1.” NBA players that…

Miami Heat forward Shane Battier was taking questions from fans on twitter Thursday night and one answer was interesting (hat tip to Sheridan Hoops): Yao Ming RT @LeonD17: @ShaneBattier Best player you played with other than lebron and dwade When you look at Battier’s other teammates over the years it makes sense. Tracy McGrady was…

After a summer of rebuilding and trying to put a team together, there are a few teams out there that are clearly looking at next summer as the chance to remake their lineup. Yes, we’re looking at you, Dallas. But you are not alone. So, who are next summer’s big potential free agents? Here is…

Atlanta, this is what you can look forward to this season. These are some DeShawn Stevenson highlights from the Orlando pro-am. Some impressive plays, some smack talk, more the latter than the former. He will defend, he will act the fool, he will be fun and the fans will like him more than Larry Drew…

You can tell right now Anthony Tolliver and his agent are trying hard to make it look like there is a ton of interest in the athletic but underwhelming four. It went so far as for reports a Greek team being interested in Tolliver to find its way into this blog. But Tolliver is interested…

There were high hopes for James Anderson with the Spurs when he was drafted, but he just never could fit. Not everyone can mesh with the Spurs’ approach, and it’s hard to see whether it’s a talent or fit issue, though there are certainly considerable gaps in his game. And as a free agent, it…

Welcome to The Inbounds, touching on a big idea of the day. It could be news, it could be history, it could be a tangent, it could be love. OK, it’s probably not love. Enjoy. Maybe no team will have the kind of predicted-win variance from fans and experts this season than the Houston Rockets.…

Summer NBA power rankings are about as meaningful and accurate as preseason college football rankings. At least the NBA isn’t silly enough to have something like this matter in determining a champion. That would be stupid. The top and the bottom of the poll are what you’d expect, but the Lakers and Celtics moved up…

Atlanta is going to be an interesting team to watch come together. Joe Johnson has been shipped off to Brooklyn with his massive contract and isolation jump shots. Things are going to be different on offense in the ATL. As Beckley Mason notes at TrueHoop, expect a lot of Jeff Teague/Josh Smith pick and roll,…

The summer of 2007 was the summer of Kobe Bryant’s discontent. Since the Lakers had traded Shaquille O’Neal they had not put new pieces around Kobe that could help win a title, and Kobe let the world know. He asked for a trade, he pressured management, he ripped Andrew Bynum to random guys with a…

Serge Ibaka is making Al Horford money. He is making Joakim Noah money. Ibaka’s new four year, $48 million contract puts him up there with those All-Stars, he is making basically what they are. And Kevin Durant couldn’t be happier for him, he told the Oklahoman. “I’m happy for him. He deserves every penny. He…

From time to time, we’ll take a look at what teams looked like on offense last year using some basic but nifty charts. Today the Atlanta Hawks. I’ve done these before with overlays of production, but it’s difficult to get a real indication relative to usage. Points per minute? Still impacted by too many…

Andrew Bynum is just one piece. I like that piece, I like the direction the 76ers are going. But as the double teams start loading up on Bynum fast and he gets better at passing out of them (a skill he needs to work on) it just puts more pressure on everyone else. The other…